the first to give his minister a mortal blow, since no one of the
soldiers had the hardihood to take the initiative in his murder.--These
events, then, took place in this way.

[Sidenote:--7--] [lacuna] Another pair executed were Verus, who had
likewise mustered courage to make an attempt upon the sovereignty while
in the midst of the third (Gallic) legion, which he was commanding; and
Gellius Maximus, on the same sort of charge, though he was lieutenant in
Syria proper and at the head of the fourth (Scythian) legion. For to
such an extent had everything got upside down, that these men, too, one
of whom had been enrolled in the senate from the ranks of the centurions
and the other of whom was the son of a physician, took it into their
heads to aim at the imperial office. I have mentioned them alone by
name, not so much because they were the only ones who appeared entirely
insane as because they belonged to the senate; for other attempts were
made. A certain centurion's son undertook to throw into disorder the
same Gallic legion, and another, a worker in wool, tampered with the
Fourth, and a third, a private citizen, with the fleet in harbor at
Cyzicus when the False Antoninus was wintering at Nicomedea. And there
were many others elsewhere, so that it became a very ordinary thing for
those who so wished to hazard the chance of fomenting rebellion and
becoming emperor. They were encouraged partly by the fact that many
persons had entered upon the supreme office without expecting or
deserving it. Let no one be incredulous of my statements, for the facts
about the private citizens I ascertained from men who are worthy of
confidence, and of what I have written about the fleet I gained an exact
knowledge in Pergamum, close at hand, the affairs of which, as also of
Smyrna, I managed, having been assigned to duty there by Macrinus. And
in view of this attempt none of the others seemed at all incredible to
me.